Actor Colin Firth says he felt “a little overwhelmed” by the enormity of the story to be told in his latest film The Railway Man.

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Firth overwhelmed by film’s story

New to the Washington area and its notorious commutes , Cheryl Rouland was eager to find the easiest way to get to work in Southeast Washington after moving to Manassas in June. She tried Virginia Railway Express . But while riding the train home from L’Enfant Station one day, Rouland received a $100 fine for fare evasion. She was dumbstruck, she said, because she had bought a roundtrip ticket that morning. Rouland was cited because she had failed to validate the afternoon portion of her “two-ride” ticket, which under state law is considered riding the train without payment. Read full article > >

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VRE cracks down on fare evasion, other offenses

PITTSBURGH, PA — As a Washington sports fan, I’ve never had much nice to say about Pittsburgh, but on a recent visit to the city for the Winter Classic I was impressed by the solidness of it.  As I sat in Heinz Field watching the Caps handily dismantle the Pens 3-1 in front of 68,000 fans, I admired the city’s surprisingly commanding skyline. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never like Pittsburgh, but I gotta hand it to the Steel City — it was built at a time when cities rose at strategic locations and prospered on raw industry.  Pittsburgh was built on the foundations of Ft. Duquense (French) and Ft. Pitt (British).  In its heyday in the railroad age, the iron ore and coke of the Pennsylvania hills were baked in blast furnaces to produce the steel that built the Union Pacific Railway and Empire State Building.  In 1909, sociologist Paul Kellogg wrote in a report called “The Pittsburgh Survey,” that “in coal and coke, tin plate, glass, cork, and sheet metal … its output is a national asset” (h/t Bill Steigerwald ).  Companies like U.S. Steel funded Mellon Bank and PNC Bank, and hotels with ornate masonry arose downtown.  Today, of course, Pittsburgh is a gloomy place with a rough economy and a nearly bankrupt municipality. Yinzers leave in droves for greener pastures in Charlotte, Atlanta, and Northern Virginia.  Those places have humming economies but definitely lack the character.  Charlotte prospered thanks to the liberalization of state banking laws in the 1960s and ’70s, and Northern Virginia boomed in the 1980s and ’90s, thanks in part to Beltway Bandits capitalizing on government spending.  Pittsburgh, for all its faults and horrible hockey teams, is a solid city full of people who know how to make things. Bruce Springsteen might as well been talking about Pittsburgh when he sang in ” Youngstown ,” “These mills they built the tanks and bombs that won this county’s wars.”  The map below shows the increase in steel production from 1941-45, with Pittsburgh clearly leading, and the second map shows furnaces, rollings mills, and steel works in Pittsburgh in 1879:

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Testaments to Better Times Still Stand Solid in Pittsburgh

The first passenger train on the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway has arrived in Porthmadog.

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Highland train finally reaches end of the line

Classic Pinewood films like Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Railway Children are being digitally restored for a new generation of movie lovers.

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How classic films are being digitised

A sewage tanker driver involved in a crash that derailed a train in Suffolk is charged with endangering safety on the railway.

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Train crash tanker driver charged

Indian Railway Minister Mamata Banerji addresses a huge rally – supported by Maoists – at a rebel stronghold in West Bengal.

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Maoists back India minister rally